A monthly podcast on ancient astrology by Chris Brennan

Chris Brennan

This is just a quick announcement to let subscribers to Traditional Astrology Radio know that the show has moved, and I’m now recording new episodes for another podcast I started called The Astrology Podcast.

The reason for the move is that the domain name TheAstrologyPodcast.com became available suddenly in June of 2012, and I purchased it and set up a new show in hopes of appealing to a wider audience than just traditional astrologers.

While traditional astrology is still my main focus and interest, and many of the episodes of the new podcast have focused on themes related to it, I sometimes felt a bit restrained by the need to only talk about traditional concepts within the context of this show, due to the name.

Additionally, I felt like with Traditional Astrology Radio I ran the risk of just “preaching to the choir,” whereas if I had more of a general astrology-themed show then my potential audience would be much broader. The idea was that once I developed a broader audience that I could slip in some traditional topics and discussions from time to time, in a way that makes it so that more modern astrologers would become interested in learning about the tradition in the long run.

So far the new podcast is going really well, and I’m up to the 20th episode. That isn’t a lot of episodes since I’ve been doing it for 2 years now, but I’ve been getting better at releasing one or two a month, which is a pretty reasonable pace that may increase as the number of listeners continues to grow.

One thing that you will notice is that the production value of the new show has increased substantially compared to episodes of Traditional Astrology Radio, since I got some better equipment, as well as more experience in recording techniques. The end result is a significantly improved listening experience.

The topic of this month’s show is the issue of house division in Hellenistic astrology, and specifically the question of the role that whole sign houses and quadrant houses played in the early western astrological tradition.

This podcast was motivated by a recent discussion on the topic of house division on the Skyscript forum where I outlined my views on the development of the doctrine of house division. The main question there was the extent to which whole sign houses was the primary system of house division in the early Hellenistic tradition, and what role quadrant houses played in delineations.

During the course of the show I outline my views on how quadrant houses evolved into a distinct form of topical house division by the late Hellenistic tradition, which was a departure from what was originally primarily a whole sign framework.

I think that quadrant houses were originally first introduced within the context of the length of life technique, as explicated by Nechepso and Petosiris, but this eventually led to astrologers experimenting with using the degree of the MC for topical purposes. Eventually by the late Hellenistic tradition the astrologers appear to have been using quadrant houses as a secondary topical overlay on top of whole sign houses.

First Podcast Exclusively on TraditionalAstrologyRadio.com

This is the first show that has been recorded since leaving our old page on BlogTalkRadio and setting up the show exclusively on TraditionalAstrologyRadio.com. I will no longer be posting shows on our old page on BlogTalkRadio, so if you would like to subscribe to the show please sign up to our new RSS feed, or subscribe via email, or subscribe via iTunes.

I’m still experimenting with the sound quality and different recording devices, and I learned a few things while editing this show that should make the sound quality during future shows much better. If you have any problems with the sound during this month’s show please let me know.

Traditional Astrology News

I begin the show with a new segment on recent news in traditional astrology. There I mention the following topics:

The release of Benjamin Dykes’ latest translation, The Book of the Nine Judges, which is a Medieval compilation of texts on horary astrology.

Demetra George is doing a retreat titled Traditional Astrology and Modern Practice in March with the South Texas Astrology Retreat group. Please note that during the show I misspoke when I mentioned the URL for their website, which is actually: TexasAstrologyRetreat.org.

During this podcast I reflect on some areas of the tradition that I’ve been researching over the course of the past year, and I provide some news and updates about important developments that have taken place in the field of traditional astrology in the past few months.

This is a solo show with no guests.

I touch on the following topics during the course of the 75 minute show:

During this show astrologers Demetra George and Benjamin Dykes join me to talk about the upcoming conference that we are organizing with the American Federation of Astrologers on traditional astrology.

The conference is titled Traditional Astrology in the 21st Century, In Honor of James H. Holden. It will take place September 22-24, 2011 in Tempe, Arizona.

During the course of the show we cover topics such as our plans for the structure of the conference, what James Holden’s contribution to traditional astrology has been, and where we think traditional astrology is headed in the future as an up-and-coming movement within the astrological community.

During this show I interview one of the leading scholars on Medieval astrology in the world today, Dr. Benjamin Dykes.

Last month Dr. Dykes published a translation of a Medieval astrological treatise on horary and electional astrology by al-Kindi titled The Forty Chapters. Al-Kindi was an important source for a number of later horary astrologers such as William Lilly, and Dykes’ translation has showed that Lilly’s use of material from al-Kindi was even more extensive than previously thought.

This show was recorded live on Thursday, May 5, 2011 through our now defunct page on BlogTalkRadio.

He also has the distinction of being on of the few astrologers who issued predictions about 9/11 prior to the attacks. He was interviewed by the History Chanel in 2005 in order to discuss these predictions:

During this show I interviewed astrologer Alan White, a hard talking ex-special forces Vietnam veteran, who has brought his unique perspective to the field of astrology for several decades now.

In the mid-90’s Alan became interested in Hellenistic astrology, and subsequently became an associate of Project Hindsight. Since then he has shared his no-nonsense approach to astrology with a variety of different audiences, including speaking positions at the Northwest Astrological Conference and the United Astrological Conference.

During the show I asked Alan some questions about how he got into astrology, what he thinks some of his most important personal insights into the subject are, and there was also some discussion about how to view certain facets of modern astrology within a traditional context.